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A night of firsts. On Dec.5th, Francis Howell Central’s JV wrestling team had its first tournament of the season with a twist; their first ever female wrestler, junior Sophia Tran, won her first ever match and had her first pin. The JV/Varsity home tournament against FZ South has left a significant impact in FHC history.

“I felt super happy and really surprised. I felt really proud because I was really nervous at first and I was psyching myself out of that, but at the end it was worth it,” Tran explained, “I’m proud of myself and everybody was there to support me, so that made me even happier.”

As she started out, she found her motivation in seeing wrestling as a different type of sport and incredibly interesting, seeing a good opportunity to try it and improve herself in another sport; however, there were some obstacles in getting there.

“How people view me and how they act when I work with them. They see me as a girl and they have to go easy on me. I don’t get the the same treatment, but overall, as I get more practices and they see how I really am and how I can prove myself,” Tran said.

To add onto that, there’s a big difference between girls and boys and the way they act around each other. So, sometimes one doesn’t fit in all the time, but have to somehow do so.

“It’s a little awkward and weird, and boys are boys, girls are girls,” Tran said, “but somehow I managed to join in and get acceptance from the group.”

The others on the team were surprised at first to see Tran had joined the team, “I got a lot of stares on the first day and it was weird having one girl in the room,” Tran said. “Because normally it’s not like that.”

Despite the discomfort, eventually they warmed up to having her on the team and Tran started being treated with the same respect and viewed in the same way as any boy on the team. Getting her first win, Tran plans to stay with wrestling this year and next year, possibly going into college with wrestling under her belt; however, she is still undecided on the future.

“Despite the whole stigma around girls not being able to do certain things as well as guys; I feel like girls can do any sport [they want]. There is no specific sport that says girls can’t do this or that, we can all run, we can all move our legs, we can all kick, so we should all be able to do it,” Tran said. “This shouldn’t really be a separation of a girl sport and a guy sport.”

Tran hopes one day that the school will be able to develop a female wrestling team in the near future and make it big within Francis Howell Central.